A Critic’s Review of Young and the Restless: Threats, Music Festivals, and Red Pantsuits

Every fan of The Young and the Restless has their own opinion — and we at Soap Hub are no different. All week long, we watched the show…good, bad, and everything else. We’re always optimistic, but sometimes we don’t get quite what we want. Here’s a review of Y&R’s week including music festival pitches, red pantsuits, and twisted triangles.

What I’m Feeling This Week: Eileen Davidson (Ashley Abbott)

This week, a good chunk of Y&R involved corporate shenanigans and condescending comments at Chancellor-Winters. Victor’s (Eric Braeden) plan to bring down Jordan (Colleen Zenk) meant arranging for Claire’s (Hayley Erin) release from the psychiatric facility.

However, what made me feel the most was Eileen Davidson’s performance. And, this surprised me a little considering I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on with Ashley (Eileen Davidson) and those voices inside her head. I’m not wild that Ashley and Audra (Zuleyka Silver) are contorting themselves for Tucker (Trevor St. John). But, man, while Audra tossed threats at Ashley during their confrontations in person and on the phone, Ashley let loose with some damaging doozies.

Audra had the audacity to tell Ashley she had more experience playing dirty than she did. And that she enjoys it much more than she should. Hello Audra, do you know who you’re talking to? In response, Ashley reeled off, “Poor, stupid Audra. You really have it bad. That makes this situation even more interesting.” On paper, this quote doesn’t seem like much. But Davidson killed it when she delivered the lines. I almost felt bad for Audra, Ashley made her look like a child.

Without exerting much energy, and potentially suffering from some sort of mental health situation, Ashley’s managed to bring out all of Audra’s insecurities. Up until this point, Audra’s been fairly calm, cool, and collected. Once again, my biggest complaint is that they’re doing this for the “love” of Tucker McCall. I put “love” in quotes because I am not convinced that guy can ever truly feel that emotion. He’s practically soulless.

I hope we find answers soon, and I’ll keep saying that until we do.

Other Y&R Thoughts

Mr. Contrarian: I’m dubbing Billy Abbott (Jason Thompson) Mr. Contrarian because that’s all he does. He opposes opinions left and right just to oppose them or because of office politics. Mr. Contrarian craps on Chance’s (Conner Floyd) music festival pitch just because Devon (Bryton James) suddenly decides to approve of it. Even though when Nate (Sean Dominic) pitched the SAME thing, he crapped all over it. These two — Devon and Billy — are making my head hurt with their posturing. But it’s funny that Chance doesn’t hold back even though he’s the resident newbie. He boldly told Mr. Contrarian he was distancing himself. I just don’t know if he should do that in favor of allying himself with Nate.

Also, Mr. Contrarian needs to stop weighing in on Connor’s (Judah Mackey) issues. He’s not that boy’s father, Adam (Mark Grossman, who discussed Adam and Claire here.) is. And Chelsea (Melissa Claire Egan) just lets it happen. Sure she yelled at both Billy and Adam for their bickering. But, in this case, she should have taken Adam’s side. Billy has his own kids to parent.

Devon: Don’t worry, Devon has his own issues. I repeat I don’t understand why he’s all for the music festival idea when his rejection of it when Nate pitched it was part of the reason why that working relationship went down the tubes.

The Red Pantsuit: I’m not fashionable, and I’ve probably worn one actual pantsuit in my life. But I adored Nikki’s red pantsuit in Friday’s episode. Melody Thomas Scott wore the you-know-what out of that outfit. If this is what she’s wearing for the upcoming Crazy Aunt Jordan drama, I approve.

Claire’s Release: I’m happy to see Claire out of that facility. A change in venue was much needed. And now she’s at the Newman ranch, a place she dreamed of as a kid. I’m glad she and Victoria (Amelia Heinle) are finally talking about meeting her siblings and that she’s worried about it. However, I think it’s funny that she keeps talking about how gigantic the ranch is and that she could get lost three times a day. Yet Nikki says being exiled there makes her feel cooped up. What???? Go outside and walk the hundreds or thousands of acres of Newman land if you feel cooped up. No need to head to tiny old Crimson Lights to meet Seth (Brian Gaskill).

Burning Y&R Questions and Random Comments

• Amanda (Mishael Morgan) and Phyllis’s (Michelle Stafford) reconnecting wasn’t long enough. I do like their friendship. But why the fairly quick mention of Amanda’s mom, Naya, dying? Why wasn’t that conversation longer? It feels like their scenes were too short.
• Do you think Kyle (Michael Mealor) plans to leave Jabot again? He’s never happy so he could be proactive about his job situation. He doesn’t like Diane (Susan Walters) being the Jabot Co-CEO, does he?
• When Mariah (Camryn Grimes) told Kyle about what was going on with her life, I wondered why they let almost all of this exposition happen offscreen. Are we ever going to see Mariah and Tessa in action again? At least we’ll occasionally get to see Tessa (Cait Fairbanks) manage Society.
• On Friday, Phyllis talked Danny (Michael Damian) into agreeing to have dinner with her. And not just any romantic dinner, but renting a restaurant out so he can make her his special sauce (ugh!). He kept saying he didn’t have feelings for her yet still said yes to dinner. What does that say about Danny?
• Meanwhile, Nina (Tricia Cast) flew in to (basically) listen to Christine (Lauralee Bell) complain about the Phyllis/Danny situation. We barely heard about Nina’s life. All we know is she’s happy Chance is no longer a cop.
• Aunt Mamie (Veronica Redd) is betting all her chips on the Winters taking over CW. I know she hates Jill (Jess Walton), but why is she willing to die on this hill?
• Can Jack (Peter Bergman) ever skip being the overprotective brother once in a while? There was no need to yell at Tucker AGAIN. Just ignore him.
• Did Cole (J. Eddie Peck) say that families don’t have to prove themselves to each other? And that’s not how they’re supposed to work? He knows he’s talking to the Newmans, right? Because the Newman kids often have to prove themselves, especially Adam.

The Young and the Restless airs weekdays on CBS. For an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.